12 February: In Brisbane to Meet the Homestay Parents

The Brisbane River

Brisbane from afar.

Safely in Brisbane, the ladies and I went to the GED office (Global Education Designs, the company running our program) as a place for everyone to meet their host families. Before they met us we took a bus to a viewpoint to get oriented with the city (see pictures). My host family is comprised of Peter and Raylene Kleineberg. Raylene picked us up and the first thing we heard about were her five children. For dinner we had a tasty curry or beef stroganoff option. Just what I was craving, too!

Let me tell you a little bit about Peter and Raylene. Raylene is a very down to earth and motherly Kiwi (meaning she’s from New Zealand). She came over with her parents to Brisbane when she was 12. She likes home improvement tasks and talking about her children and current affairs; she’s 57 and a retired nurse among other things. Peter really is a crazy German, originally from Hannover, who came over to Brisbane to stay with a friend and then he met Raylene when she was 16 and he was 26! They were married a year later and he barely spoke English so she had a hand in teaching him. Although he and Raylene go back to Germany once a year, he’s lived in Australia the last forty years of his life. He wears his speedo around the house and when he does wear a shirt, it’s an easy breezy flannel that hangs open bearing his chest. By profession he’s an architect, but a retired one at the age of 67. I think my favorite thing about him is his love of telling us Australian slang and his laugh is a cackle so we (Jen Schildmeyer, my LC host sister) hear him laughing all the time and it warms our hearts.

...and unfortunately, I don't have a picture of them yet!